Mare's nest: October 2011

Saturday, October 29, 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Little Miss V decorated the house for Halloween at the beginning of October, I am pretty sure this is her all time favorite holiday. These little guys are lounging in the bathroom window. Upon closer inspection I was amazed at the lifelike spider behind the laying down one. Goodness that girl is great at decorating............... seems as though all through the house there are very festive cobwebs and spiders and...... uh, anyone have time to vacuum lately?

And here we have the lovely Miss V modeling her vintage style pajamas that I made MUCH earlier and finally finished sewing the snaps on.

And finally some yummy yummy pumpkin bread!!! Oh this stuff is sooooo good, it's a wee bit dangerous. Of course it has a load of sugar and spices in it so it should be!

PS to give credit where credit is due, and becaue I know some of you will want to make this fabulous bread, the recipe is from the lovely Andrea over at "under a blue moon" go visit her blog, you will not be disapointed!

http://bleulune.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

OMG!

Okay, that is totally not French, but I just realized that it's been a MONTH since I blogged. Ooo la la I am tres busy with this school stuff!!! Homework, tests, studying. And of course all the extra responsibilities I didn't have 30 years ago! Gosh, did I care at 18 if the toilets in the dorm overflowed? Heck NO! that was someone elses problem! (wish it still was) 120 year old plumbing is not a particular joy to live with. sigh, poor me huh? Anyway, I am not the head of my class, but I don't seem to be at the bottom either, and that is fine with me. (I'm pretty sure in my mean little mind that the little 18 year old girl that gets EVERYTHING right had about 4 years of French in high school... grrrr) I have been trying to get my real life people to understand that I can't do everything I used to.............. and I have said no to a few things. GASP! Mare say NO to something???? well I did! (not enough as it turns out) I will be working on a monk costume this weekend, hopefully there will be pictures to follow. Meantime............ check out this most AWESOME link of the Eiffel Tower webcame!!! you can even make it go back and do the last 24 hours, or week or whatever! SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool!!!
http://www.parisrama.com/toureiffeltowerwebcam.html

Three pennies a day

I have been trying to give my three cents worth lately. I read about this movement to change the world by 3 pennies.
What you do is, every morning you put three pennies in your left pocket. During the course of the day if you do something nice for someone you move one penny to your right pocket. So, it can be something big and nice, something unexpected and nice or even something small and nice like opening the door for a stranger. Then at the end of the day your goal is to have the three pennies in your right pocket.
Kind of neat huh? Just a little pocket reminder to be nice to people and go out of your way a bit. I also tell myself sometimes, "ooo that wasn't a nice thought, I should have to move my penny back!" ;-)
I hope whoever reads this has a three penny day.

Up date on one of the Worlds Smallest Quilt Guilds

Our membership is now officially 50% bigger than previously noted! My good friend Susan from Florida is now an official member of the guild. Initiation took place at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. Flori, as she is lovingly called in our guild brings a special imitable style to our most exclusive guild. She hob-nobs with Alex Anderson, rubs elbows with Pink Flamingos and knows me! Guess that last part wasn't too humble now was it? ;p Flori is our official Officer in Charge of Coffee and she did her job remarkably well at the festival, finding coffee for us when the situation was getting quite desperate. She also found coffee fabric which was quite the feather in her cap. Well, it would be if she was wearing one. Good job new officer!

History of One of the wolds smallest quilt guilds

I once believed I belonged to THE worlds smallest quilt guild, 2 people- my favorite cousin and myself. Then Mary Stori came to my local guild as speaker and she pointed out that she and a fellow quilt friend were the worlds smallest quilt guild. So, I had to revise my thinking. ONE of the worlds smallest quilt guilds consists of myself and my favorite cousin, we don't have regular meetings as the distance is a bit far for either of us to commit to on a regular basis. She lives in gorgeous Colorado, with a spectacular view of Pikes Peak, I live in lovely Wisconsin, within a short drive of beautiful Lake Michigan.
As a guild however, we are working on 2 or more round robbins. I say 2 or more because I forget exactly where we are with them. I have 2 at my house, and if I remember correctly she has 1 at her house. When we get together, usually in CO, we do a lot of quilt retreating as she has a longarm machine. We don't pay dues, and we haven't decided yet which of us is president, but I think I'm going to run for that office this year. I'm pretty sure I will win as she is awfully busy homeschooling 5 kids, taking care of a baby and running her longarm machine daily. She does most of the charity quilts, quilting donations on her longarm, though we have done several prayer quilts together for people we have heard about.
Now for a name for our little group........ I'm thinking, there will be more on this in my ramblings